Abir Mukherjee, the child of immigrants from India, was brought up in the West of Scotland. The FT calls his novels “taut historical crime fiction thriller[s] that also interrogate the Imperial legacy.” He started writing “to explore that shared history between Britain and India which… has made such a great impact on the country we live in and the values we share.”In A Rising Man he introduced ex-Scotland Yard detective Captain Sam Wyndham and ‘Surrender-Not’ Banerjee.
Set in Calcutta in 1919, it was inspired by Mukherjee’s desire to learn more about a crucial, but often overlooked period in Anglo-Indian history. It won the Harvill Secker/Daily Telegraph crime writing competition and was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.Smoke and Ashes, moves the action to 1921. Wyndham is battling a serious opium addiction that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force. Summoned to investigate a grisly murder, he is stunned to recognise the victim, having stumped across a corpse the previous night with the same ritualistic injuries. Unfortunately, the corpse was in an opium den…
Chaired by Nicola Sturgeon.
